Making Iron Gall Ink - In Pictures!

How to Make Iron Gall Ink

First you need a recipe, conveniently we sell a kit that includes the following recipe

• 40 g of powdered Aleppo oak galls

• 25 g of iron (II) sulfate (with three drops of clove oil added to it)

• 25 g of gum Arabic

• A pair of gloves

• 2 storage bottles

• Coffee Filter/filter cloth

• Plastic Spoon(s)

• 1 cup (120 mL) of water (distilled, or reverse osmosis filtered preferred)

• ¾ cup (180 mL) vinegar (white, cider, or wine)

• ¾ cup (180 mL) of wine (old is fine)

Note: Mix all ingredients with a plastic or stainless steel utensil (wooden utensils will be ruined). Wear Gloves through this entire process as the ink will stain your hands, clothes, etc.

Well, let’s go through this a step at a time.

You need to gather all of your materials, to get oak galls, iron(II) sulfate, and gum Arabic, I recommend buying the iron gall ink making kit from us.

The kit also includes your filter cloth, gloves, and spoon, etc.

You also need water, ideally, distilled or reverse osmosis filtered water, though you can use tap water in a pinch.

Next you need vinegar: white vinegar, apple cider vinegar, wine vinegar, just grab some vinegar

And next you need some wine: White wine, red wine, old wine, new wine…

All-righty, now that we have all of the ingredients, lets measure…wait…PUT YOUR GLOVES ON!! This stuff can stain your skin and is slightly toxic.

Great job following safety protocols!

Ok, now we can measure the ingredients.

Measure ¾ cup of vinegar

¾ cup of wine (I like red the best)

And 1 cup of water (Double what is in the picture)

Mix them all together

Measure 1 cup of this mixture

Place it in a pan

Add the Oak galls to this pan

Boil it for about 5 minutes (make sure it doesn’t boil over!)

Measure ½ cup of your remaining liquid

Pour it into an appropriate container

Add the Iron(II) Sulfate to this

And stir to dissolve

Measure another ½ cup of your remaining liquid

And add it to an appropriate container

Add gum Arabic to this liquid

And Stir to dissolve

Allow the oak galls to cool, and filter the liquid through a cloth into a jar

Add the final ½ cup of liquid to the oak gall mush

Filter this liquid through the cloth again

Squeeze out the remaining liquid

Until the oak galls are dry-ish

You should have about 1 cup of oak gall extract

Add the iron(II) Sulfate solution to this extract (don’t forget your gloves like I did!!, also I forgot to take a picture )

This should now form a dark black/grey liquid

Now add your gum Arabic solution/suspension

Stir this all together thoroughly and you have made ink. I like to filter it once more through the filter cloth after I have made the ink to get any large clumps out. (this part is extremely messy and not entirely necessary, but it helps smooth out the ink concistency)